The biggest frustrations for drivers

Published:19:00Updated:19:24Saturday 17 June 2017

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Sitting in traffic jams is the biggest frustration for 60 per cent of drivers on their daily commute.

As part of Ride to Work Week (June 19 to 25) and an initiative encouraging more people to travel to and from work on motorbikes and scooters, motorcycle insurance broker, Carole Nash, asked more than 1,000 people what frustrates them most on their journey.

As a national average, almost half (41 per cent) of all commuters said that the amount of time spent in traffic is one of their biggest bugbears.

Taking the train or bus does nothing to avoid the frustration, however, as public transport delays are the third most irritating aspect of commuting in Britain and Ireland, chosen by 19 per cent.

Other passengers on public transport are a source of a huge number of complaints, such as loud phone talkers (15 per cent) and screaming children (14 per cent).

People under 25 appear to be generally more annoyed by fellow passengers on trains and buses, despite a broadly similar mixture of ages using different transport, for example, 15 per cent of them listed hearing music from others’ headphones among their biggest peeves, compared to just six per cent of people aged 45 to 54.

Although public transport delays were listed as a pet peeve by 19 per cent of all commuters, more than twice as many under-25s chose it (41 per cent).

They are also far more annoyed than their older counterparts by noisy eaters (17 per cent against eight per cent of 45 to 54s) and loud phone conversations (22 per cent vs 14 per cent), as well as sharing an intolerance of noisy gangs of teenagers with those aged over 65 (15 per cent vs nine per cent).

The research shows that all commuters could benefit from taking motorcycle Compulsory Basic Training (CBT), with young adults potentially having the most to gain in terms of a more stress-free journey to work. The CBT is a comprehensive day which offers riders the skills to safely ride a small motorbike or moped unaccompanied on the road.

Rebecca Donohue, head of marketing at Carole Nash, said: “With the majority of all commuters’ irritations caused by other passengers and road users, riding a motorcycle or scooter to work is the best way to avoid both public transport and the misery of traffic jams.

“With the ability to cut through queues of cars, it makes sense that riding to work really is the easiest and often quickest way of getting to and from the office.

“If more people do commute by motorbike or scooter, it will dramatically help alleviate congestion in our cities and improve the journey for all road users.”

To help encourage more people to ride motorbikes to work, Carole Nash is supporting Ride to Work Week, from June 19 to 25, by automatically giving its policyholders in the UK and Ireland free commuting cover for the week.

Steve Kenward at the Motorcycle Industry Association, which organises the event, said: “There are obviously huge personal benefits to swapping to a motorcycle or scooter for your commute, especially in terms of saving time and money, but there are benefits for all road users too.

“A European study*, which modelled the road for a particularly congested part of Belgium, showed that when just 10% of drivers swapped to a motorcycle, scooter or moped, then congestion was reduced for all road users by 40 per cent. When 25 per cent swapped, it was eliminated altogether. Just imagine how much less congested our roads would be if more people swapped to two wheels?”

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